고등학교에서의 영어작문교육에 관한 연구

Abstract

This thesis is a study on the teaching of English paragraph-writing in high schools in Korea. First, I have collected high school teachers opinions on composition classes and analyzed five authorized composition textbooks which are currently being used for the liberal-arts students in high schools. Next, I have studied the historical and psychological backgrounds of the controlled composition. Then, I have studied new ideas and text materials on controlled composition from the publication mainly of England and the United States of America. Finally, I have attempted to propose an set of materials for the teaching of English paragraph-writing on high school level in Korea. I tried to incorporate a variety of aspects of paragraph writing in this proposal, covering 'description', narrations', 'expositions', 'argumentation'. At the end of the proposed materials, I have included a limited materials on 'essay' and 'letter' writing to show students how the paragraphs which they have so far studied would incorporate into an organic whole comprising a number of different paragraphs. Each section of the propose materials begins with one or two model paragraphs by which students are supposed to practice imitations. Following the models are presented a number of different exercises, each having a specific and definite purpose of either skill-improvement of training in logical thinking. Teaching of English composition has been unfairly neglected in the past twenty years, while teaching of speaking of pronunciation in English has been unduly emphasized. It has been found from the questionaires answered by 50 high school English-teachers that 43 of them do not have separate classes for the teaching of Englich composition. The present situation, as it is reflected in their answers, is that English composition has been and still is parasitic to the teaching of reading and translation. To make the things worse, the majority of the teachers impose 'free composition' from the very beginning with no preparatory guidance. The result is a complete confusion, with the mass of uncontrollable grammatical, mechanical, logical errors in the students' papers; it only causes, moreover, a hectic in the teachers for which they have no means of devising a remedy. The underlying principle running through this thesis including the proposed materials is 'controlled and guided composition'. The psychological rapport to this principle is the behavioristic 'reinforcement', that is, 'a reward pays rather than a punishment'. The paragraph materials are presented in the order of difficulties, and the exercise in the order of both difficulties and complexities. I have tried to select appropriate paragraphs in terms of their cultural implications and their universal interest, which, I hope, do not betray students expectations and concerns.